La Salle Students Earn Top Art Honors

Press Release:

Amelia Garrison has been named as one of the top student artists in Los Angeles County in the Los Angeles Region Scholastic Art and Writing Award Competition. She was selected as one of the five Gold Key winners and American Vision nominees from Los Angeles County for her piece "Laundry Relationships," a work of photography (pictured).

To be named an American Vision nominee, a panel of judges selected her work as the “Best of Show” in her category for the 2012 Los Angeles Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Amelia’s work will automatically advance to the national competition in New York.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the email and saw that my name was the first one. I am just one of five people in L.A. County to receive this honor,” said the 17-year-old La Salle senior. 

Her work, “Laundry Relationships,” shows three girls in a coin-operated laundromat, where an older teenager is folding clothes while two younger girls sit huddled together looking at a lacy shirt, readying themselves for the day when they can wear such a grown-up piece of clothing.

Amelia caught the photography bug when she was in sixth grade and took a photography class at Amory for the Arts. By the time she was in eighth grade, she got her Nikon and has been taking photographs ever since.

In addition to taking AP Photography, Amelia has been a familiar actor in numerous La Salle theater productions, including “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Twelfth Night.” She competed last October in the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California’s Fall Festival. She also plays tenor saxophone in Jazz Band, Pep Band and Advanced Band.

“My involvement in all the arts has helped me develop an eye for seeing things differently,” she said, noting that her love for the arts was first nutured at the Waldorf School in Altadena, where she attended prior to La Salle. “I have learned to think out of the box and look at the world differently.”

La Salle AP Art and AP Photography teacher, Ellen Slatkin, had assigned students to create a work that captured a slice of America.

“No one pays attention to laundromats or the people inside,” said Amelia, who estimated she shot 75 images on her Nikon DSLR camera before she had the photograph she wanted. She used color enhancement and Photoshop to make the image edgier and to highlight the L.A. feeling of the palm trees outside the dreary coin-operated laundry.

“If I push them, they grow,” Ms. Slatkin said. “I expect them to reach down deep and they do.”

Twelve other La Salle art students won regional Scholastic Art Awards, including  Gold Key winners Katrina Dela Cruz for her still life painting “Fruit and Shoes,” Stephanie Delazeri for her animated short film “Ballmation,” Jessica Gardner for her painting “untitled,” Shannon McCauley for her painting “Sky,” and Sheyda Pejoumand for her painting “A Serious Man.”

All of the regional Gold Key winners are being considered for national-level recognition. The Gold Key winners will be notified if they advance to the national competition on March 15.

In addition, Miles Brenninkmeijer won a Silver Key award for “Ripples,” a work of photography, and Elizabeth Hoffman won a Silver Key for her painting, “Cupcakes.”

La Salle students receiving honorable mention awards include: Amara Blades, Tamara Chacon, Katrina Dela Cruz, Stephanie Delazeri, Andrew Linaac, Kelly Mercade, and Miranda Stein.

You can see the students work for yourself at the Scholastic Art  Award exhibit at the Armory for the Arts, 145 N Raymond Ave. in Pasadena, which will be held from May 19 through June 10.

The gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, noon until 5:00pm. 

The Scholastic Art Award ceremony and closing reception for the exhibit is June 10, at the Armory at 2 pm.